VIE+W | About the Man Crucified between the Sun and the Shade

When I think about poverty in my temple throb with pain one name – Africa. Away from romance of Casablanca, Egyptian pyramids or the safari in Kenya. I associate Africa more with hunger and its hundred faces. Everywhere in the world it insatiably rules in suburbs, desert places, poky houses. But in Africa its defeated dance tightens up the senses. How could I live through that – reconciling from malaria human bodies, crouching in the dust to a sheet metal in the ghetto, naked children with puny legs and huge tearful eyes, fierce male faces and hands with swollen veins and automatic weapons. A terrifying picture of human hopelessness. And fear - of Death. I have never been to Africa. I look at it from the outside. As an active internet user who communicates virtual, read horrific statistics, follow reporting from hot spots, shares foreign concerns from a distance. But feel, cry and dream as thousands of decades ago. Human. With a heart which is not only mine, but of the whole world. Because I am a part of this world. And I cannot stay indifferent.

What can I do? A twenty-year old girl from a small Bulgarian town. I can dream of the day when Africa will be another. Not as Ryszard Kapuściński, Polish journalist, describes it. I read a part of his book The Shadow of the Sun and I realized what is a denied future. Imagine life which goes in search of shade. The only activity in the day dedicated to the fight against hunger. Another day you drink only water and fight with the heat. Nothing exists – only you, the sun and the shadow. You build your life on these three points of support and wait for death. Fight with your brutalization as you find: gaping passers, exchanging a word with your neighbor, busy with the same activity - not to miss the shade. Otherwise the heat will first reach forward your dried-up heart. Heart which bears nothing – neither pain nor sorrow, nor dream. For which there is no tomorrow. There is only now. And a little shade before the saving embrace of sleep.

Alone, I cannot even change myself. But together we can achieve a lot. Let's begin from there to believe that things can be changed. Hunger - defeated. Hope - returned. Future - seen outside the Shadow. And the sun - turned into a symbol of total living. The change in attitudes towards developing countries depends on young people. These countries really need of help to deal with poverty. Political leaders and international organizations, however, should look objectively on the concept developing country. To take – even imaginary the place of the person seeking the shade to forget hunger. To feel - albeit slightly - wanderers among the chaos that seems unassembled. Otherwise we will remain eternal nomads in the desert of indifference.

The world has made the first step - understanding the need. But I, you, we all have to keep walking. With small but sure steps. To make people to escape from the shadow and to believe in the other possible life - fill, work, home, ownership, dreams. There is already lined horizon - these are the objectives of the Millennium Development. The point is these objectives to be translated into effective actions which will provide thousands of tiny horizons. Beyond the shadows. And starvation. I would start with children because they are the most defenseless. Because they rely on support and cannot walk alone to their horizon. I imagine school in Africa as spacious, bright and clean building in which children learn to cope with the challenges and fight for their future. Through knowledge. And values such as trust, understanding, tolerance, activity, constancy, persistence. At school the little person meets examples of good and learns to do good. And most importantly, learns to expect and looks for good. It starts from man and reaches the state - its good governance means respect for human rights, democracy, rule of law, gender equality, tackling corruption, friendly attitude towards natural resources.

I realize that my ideas for the development of Africa are too vague, but the specificity is in the power of big politics. And leaders who take responsibility. I can only take my inconspicuous share of activity - in my thought and heart. To help people in Africa, if only from afar. To wish the salvation. And the future. To achieve the change. For themselves, for their children, for their native country and for Africa.

by: Elena Tarakova

PEOPLE+ | One different hobby: Calisthenics

“Whether you think you can or you can't you're right.”

Henry Ford

This is something I say to myself every day. Why? Because countless of times I have seen the impossible become possible.

Maybe one of the brightest examples I can give is when I was in sixth grade. During one of our breaks in school, I overheard two of my classmates talking about a friend of theirs who was capable of performing something that I found virtually impossible. What was it you might ask? The answer is a one-arm pull-up. At first, I thought to myself that this was a complete non-sense and they did not know either what they were talking about or were not having in mind a clean one-arm pull-up, but some type of assisted variation.

After I got home however, I was deeply interested in this exercise and did a little research. To my complete surprise, not only did I find out that it achievable, but also I ran across of thousands of examples of different people executing the move with perfect form. I was shaken to the core. Something that four or five hours ago had seemed unobtainable turned out to be perfectly manageable. That was the moment when something sparked inside me.

From that moment on, I decided to become stronger and bigger (since I always was a skinny person). I did not really know where to start so the first step I took was educating myself. I read a couple of articles about fitness and watch a good amount of videos on YouTube related to this topic. I tried working out at home and at the beginning I was very motivated but after a month or so, my motivational tank was depleted.

The time passed by, I finished sixth grade and was in summer break. Coincidenally, during that time my best friends, Kevin and Mario, also had received some type of inspiration and had set similar goals to mine. There was a gym just around the corner, which made the picture even simpler. We all bought memberships and started going regularly. At that time, we did not really know what we were doing, but we were having fun, while getting slightly closer to our desired results. The summer ended and we had got a lot stronger and a little bit bigger, but nowhere close to the aims, we had in mind.

School started and the first month went on as if nothing had happened during the summer. No workouts, no training sessions, nothing. Then, however, I decided it was to continue working out. The whole process repeated itself, only that this time it lasted only a month. I noticed some gains, although it looked like the gym just was not the right thing for me. It was around that time that another, and may be the most important, nail was put in my workout coffin. My aunt gave me one book, which was like the Bible for me in terms of training. Its name is “Convict Conditioning” and highly recommend it to you as well.

It was this piece of paper that turned the spark into a fire, which has never stopped burning until then. I got serious with my training, which was solely bodyweight exercises, and while my workouts were not that efficient (considering the maximal results I could have achieved), the most important thing was that they were consistent and I did not plan to stop ever again. I had my difficulties like everyone else and while I made some (actually a lot of) very stupid mistakes which hindered my progress, with time I obtained the necessary knowledge and upgraded my sessions a little by little.

Now, four years later, I look back and see that all the struggles that I had, all the obstacles I had to overcome, all the hard work have paid back immensely. I am looking better than ever and am able to perform advanced calisthenics elements such as front lever, back lever, freestanding handstand push-ups and so on. It literally feels and looks like I am defining gravity. Starting my calisthenics journey was the best decision I have made, which has enhanced every single aspect of my life. What happened to the one-arm pull-up you ask? I GOT IT.

by: Atanas Atanasov

LIFE+ | Seminar "Slaves of the 21st century" | Madrid, Spain

The seminar “Slaves of the 21st century” was held in Madrid, Spain from the 18th of August to 24th of August. The project was funded by the Erasmus + programme of the European Commission.

The participants, who were from Bulgaria, Algeria, Lebanon, Germany, France, Ukraine, Turkey, Tunisia, Macedonia, Jordan and Egypt shared knowledge, experience and ideas using a non-formal style of education.

The main topics of the project were Immigrant issues and human trafficking. The participants took part in the meeting with the aim of making the social injustice known to the world. The main objective of the project was to address new skills and strategies for eradicating all forms of youth slavery in the world.

The participants successfully developed ideas how to raise bigger awareness about youth slavery in 21st century and how to prevent such situations. What is more, they came up with proposals about steps that can be implemented in order to end slavery as this issue that we are witnessing today happening is even more serious than we expect, and it is occurring in more and more places.

In conclusion, it has been an amazing experience for every participant. The participants were immersed in the topic and I met many inspiring people, made new friends and learned a lot on this topic that we should all be concerned about.

by: Daniela Vasileva